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Study Finds Medical Home Pilot Provides Better Care Quality with No Added Cost
A study published in the American Journal of Managed Care finds that a pilot patient-centered medical home (PCMH) at a metropolitan Seattle clinic resulted in significantly fewer emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations among PCMH patients compared with controls, Healthcare Financial News reports. To assess the efficacy of the PCMH model, researchers from the Group Health Research Institute and the University of Washington compared experiences and outcomes among 9,200 patients receiving care through a PCMH pilot project developed at Seattle-based Group Health Cooperative with experiences and outcomes among patients at two control clinics of similar size and Medicare enrollment rates. After one year, the researchers found that patients receiving care through the PCMH had 29 percent fewer ED visits, 11 percent fewer hospitalizations and 6 percent fewer in-person primary care visits than patients in the control group. In addition, PCMH patients reported higher ratings than control patients on six of seven patient experience scales. PCMH patients also communicated more regularly with their providers, with researchers documenting 94 percent more e-mail exchanges and 12 percent more phone calls, and the PCMH patients also attended more group visits and self-management support workshops. Moreover, the findings showed higher staff satisfaction, with 10 percent of the physicians, nurses and other staff working in the PCMH reporting they felt "burned out" or emotionally exhausted compared with 30 percent working at control facilities. Examining costs, meanwhile, the researchers report that, across all components of care, there were no significant cost differences between the PCMH and standard clinics (Healthcare Financial News, 9/2/09; Group Health release, 9/1/09; Reid et al., American Journal of Managed Care, September 2009).